Raggedy Ann facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann meets Raggedy Andy for the first time; illustrated by Johnny Gruelle
First appearance	Raggedy Ann Stories
Created by	Johnny Gruelle
Information
Gender	Female
Nationality	American

Raggedy Ann is a character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938) that appeared in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and a triangle nose. Gruelle received US Patent D47789 for his Raggedy Ann doll on September 7, 1915. The character was created in 1915 as a doll, and was introduced to the public in the 1918 book Raggedy Ann Stories. When a doll was marketed with the book, the concept had great success. A sequel, Raggedy Andy Stories (1920), introduced the character of her brother, Raggedy Andy. Further characters such as Beloved Belindy, a black mammy doll, were featured as dolls and characters in books.

Naming Raggedy Ann

On June 17, 1915, shortly after submitting his patent application for the doll's design, Johnny Gruelle applied for a registered trademark for the Raggedy Ann name, which he created by combining words from two of James Whitcomb Riley poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie". (Riley was a well-known Hoosier poet and a Gruelle family friend and neighbor from the years when they resided in Indianapolis.) The U.S. Patent Office registered Gruelle's trademark application (107328) for the Raggedy Ann name on November 23, 1915.

Early books and doll design

Raggedy Ann Stories (1918), written and illustrated by Johnny Gruelle and published by the P. F. Volland Company, was the first in a series of books about his cloth doll character and her friends. The book's first edition also included Gruelle's own version of the doll's origins and the related stories. Two years after the publication of the first Raggedy Ann book, Gruelle introduced Raggedy Ann's brother, Raggedy Andy, in Raggedy Andy Stories (1920).

Gruelle's U.S. Patent design for what became known as the Raggedy Ann doll

Although the female members of Gruelle's family may have made a small number of initial versions of the Raggedy Ann doll in Norwalk, Connecticut, to help market the related books, Gruelle soon established a merchandising agreement with P. F. Volland Company, his primary publisher, to begin commercially manufacturing, selling, and promoting a mass-produced version of the doll.

In addition to his patent application U.S. Patent D47,789  in 1915 for the design of what became the Raggedy Ann doll, Gruelle patented his design U.S. Patent D56,149  for a generic male doll in 1920. A short time after its literary debut in 1920, Raggedy Andy appeared as a commercially-made doll, marketed by Volland.

Following the success of the first Raggedy Ann book, Gruelle continued to author and illustrate at least one Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy story each year until his death in 1938. In addition to books Gruelle also wrote lyrics for musical compositions that were published as sheet music and songbooks for children. These works included "Raggedy Ann's Sunny Songs" (1930) which was set to music by former U. S. Treasury Secretary William H. Woodin.

In his later years Gruelle collaborated with his son, Worth, on illustrations for some of his later books such as Raggedy Ann and the Golden Meadow (1935) and on a series of illustrated Raggedy Ann proverbs that were syndicated in newspapers. By 1938, the year that Johnny Gruelle died, his first Raggedy Ann book had sold more than 3 million copies.

Raggedy Ann doll sales were also growing. The P. F. Volland Company's initial order of 24 dozen dolls from the Non-Breakable Toy Company, the doll's early manufacturer, increased to about 3,200 dolls within the first eight months of production. With its growing popularity, Gruelle gave Volland the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell the dolls as long as it remained the exclusive publisher of his books.

Legacy

By the end of the 1940s, sales of Raggedy Ann-related books exceeded 7 million copies. The Indianapolis-based Bobbs-Merrill Company became the authorized publisher and licensor for Raggedy Ann-related literary works in 1962, and the Knickerbocker Toy Company began manufacturing the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls in the early 1960s. Simon & Schuster and Hasbro claim ownership of the trademarks to the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Ann and Andy names. The original U.S. Patent D47,789  for the 1915 doll design, as well as the Raggedy Ann Stories (1918) and Raggedy Andy Stories (1920) books, are in the public domain, their copyrights having expired.

The Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls and their related memorabilia have become sought-after collectors' items. In addition to the dolls and books, other related items continue to be produced including adaptations of the stories into comic books, audio recordings, animated films, and television and theatrical productions.

Honors and tributes

The Raggedy Ann doll was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York, on March 27, 2002. Raggedy Andy was inducted 5 years later on November 8, 2007.

Related books

Johnny Gruelle, Raggedy Ann's creator, authored and/or illustrated dozens of related works. Many other books were released and in some cases credited to Gruelle after his death in 1938. In addition, numerous works have been written and/or illustrated by others such as Ethel Hays, who illustrated most of the Saalfield Publishing Company's Raggedy Ann-related stories published from 1944.

Written and illustrated by Johnny Gruelle

Written by Johnny Gruelle; illustrated by others

Written by others; illustrated by Gruelle and/or others

Raggedy Ann and Andy's Grow and Learn Library

A collection of twenty books published by Lynx, with each story containing a lesson, such as maintaining friendship when someone moves away or why parents must go to work. Raggedy Ann and Andy live in Marcella's playroom with many other toys such as Babette the French doll, Raggedy dog, The Camel with the Wrinkled Knees, Sunny Bunny, Bubbles the Clown, Tim the Toy Soldier and more.

Other adaptations

Many subsequent adaptations of the Raggedy Ann and Andy books have been published, in addition to the characters appearing in other media formats.

Animated feature films and shorts

• Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios shorts:
  • Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1941)
  • Suddenly It's Spring (1944)
  • The Enchanted Square (1947)
• Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977)

Theatre/Stage

• Raggedy Ann and Andy (1981)
• Raggedy Ann: The Musical Adventure (1986)

Television

• Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper (1978)
• Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile (1979)
• The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy (1988–1990)
• Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees

Audio recordings

Comic books

Doll manufacturers

A Raggedy Ann 100-year edition doll

• P. F. Volland Company (1920-1934)
• Beers, Keelier, and Bowman (early manufacturer of Raggedy Andy dolls)
• Exposition Doll and Toy Company (1935-mid 1935)
• Molly-'Es Doll Outfitters (without permission) (1935-1937)
• Georgene Novelties (1938-1962)
• Knickerbocker Toy Co. (1963-1982)
• Applause Toy Company/Russ Berrie (1983-2011)
• Hasbro/Playskool (1983–present), master license
• Aurora World Inc. (2012–present (exclusive plush doll license)

Doll production

Although the female members of Gruelle's family may have originally handmade a few of the versions of the Raggedy Ann doll in Norwalk, Connecticut, to help market the related books, Gruelle soon established a merchandising agreement with P. F. Volland Company, the primary publisher of his books, to manufacture, sell, and promote a mass-produced, commercial version of the Raggedy Ann doll. Early Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls were manufactured by different companies and not produced as matched sets.

Between 1918 and 1926, the Non-Breakable Toy Company of Muskegon, Michigan, made more than 75,000 dolls were made for Volland. By the late 1920s Volland's orders for Raggedy Ann dolls from its manufacturer had reached 4,000 per month. When Volland ceased operations during the Great Depression it had already sold more than 150,000 dolls and nearly 2 million Raggedy Ann books.

In 1935 Gruelle granted permission to the Exposition Doll and Toy Manufacturing Company to manufacture and sell authorized versions of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. From 1935 until 1937 Molly-'Es Doll Outfitters manufactured and sold unauthorized versions of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls until a legal decision handed down in Gruelle v (Mollye) Goldman prohibited Molly-'Es Dolls from further manufacturing and sales of the dolls.

In popular culture

• A Raggedy Ann balloon debuted at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1984, flying for two years.
• The allegedly cursed Annabelle doll is a Raggedy Ann doll.

Public collections

Gruelle's hometown of Arcola, Illinois, is the former home of the annual Raggedy Ann and Andy Festival and the Raggedy Ann and Andy Museum. The museum was closed and the festival discontinued in 2009. Some of the museum's contents were donated to Strong National Museum of Play. Other aspects of the collection were moved to the Rockome Gardens theme park in Arcola.

See also

In Spanish: Raggedy Ann para niños